#91 – Wonder Why We Ever Go Home
#91 – Wonder Why We Ever Go Home
-by Stacy Garwood-
Wonder Why We Ever Go Home is a song that Jimmy Buffett wrote in the seventies, having had a couple twists and turns and reinventions along the way, before making its final form appearance on his noteworthy 1977 album, commonly referred to as “Changes” to his fans. It is soft and reflective, soulful and sad, and seems to capture the deeper parts of Jimmy’s songwriting talents.
“Years grow shorter, not longer, The more you’ve been on your own, Feelin’s for movin’ grow stronger, So you wonder why you ever go home, Wonder why you ever go home…”
Wonder Why We Ever Go Home was released on JB’s iconic 1977 album, Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes. It was never released as a single, but it has touched the soul of many a Jimmy Buffett fan and has a less straightforward story than one might realize.
The initial version of the song was written by Jimmy for the Rancho Deluxe movie soundtrack, released in 1975, although that version was titled Wonder Why You Ever Go Home, with only one verse. The music was included in the movie, touching on scenes where the movie’s protagonists, Jack and Cecil, go home to visit their families. The lyrics don’t make the movie, but they are on the soundtrack, and that version also has a hint of melody from The Wino And I Know, which was released on 1974’s Living and Dying In ¾ Time.
Rancho Deluxe was a 1975 film written by Jimmy’s future brother-in-law Thomas McGuane and was directed by Frank Perry. The movie has become a cult classic and was set in the Livingston Montana area of Park County, featuring great local locations and mentions, such as Paradise Valley and “the Crazies”, a mountain range officially called The Crazy Mountains, but once known as the Crazy Woman Mountains. Rancho Deluxe was filmed in March of 1974, with Jimmy not only responsible for the soundtrack, but also having a cameo appearance in the film.
As a person born and raised in Montana, I always appreciated Jimmy’s footsteps in Big Sky County, even if I’m more tied to the prairie east than the mountain west of the state. I grew up on a farm and ranch in eastern Montana, and can associate with a rural way of making a living and prairie land almost overrun with gophers, while still appreciate the quirky characters that are introduced in the movie, as well as looking back at a hint of life in Montana in the 1970’s, including a quite interesting dialogue about Montanans and their almost obsessive love of pickup trucks.
From Rancho Deluxe: “The poor people of this state are dope fiends for pickup trucks. As soon as they get ten cents ahead, they trade in on a new pickup truck. The families, homesteads, schools, hospitals and happiness of Montana have been sold down the river to buy pickup trucks! It is a sickness here worse than alcohol or dope… it is the pickup truck death, and there is no cure in sight.“ I do not know the ratio of pickups to people in Montana in this day and age, but people do seem to love their pickup trucks! Every pickup truck that I recall from my childhood in the seventies and early eighties included a fully loaded gun-rack in the back window, the nostalgia of which this movie certainly captures.
The movie itself has an interesting group of characters, and locations that are very familiar to Montana locals, such as the Wrangler Bar in Livingston, capturing scenes from the towns quaint streets and unnamed brothel on the edge of town, and Chico Hot Springs, where a slightly surreal steam filled cattle rustling plan is concocted. The characters and storyline are less about reality, with some stereotypes filtered in to carry the story. And if you are expecting a politically correct wash like most movies made today, this is going to ruffle your feathers a bit. It was made long before the world became PC, and includes dialogue and scenes about animal care and derogatory Naïve American comments. The world has improved a lot in those regards, so if you ever watch the film, take that into consideration.
While Rancho Deluxe is now considered a cult classic, at the time of its release, Roger Ebert said the movie went “disastrously wrong”, and after the movie hit theaters, state senator Larry Aber, of Columbus, apparently said that Rancho Deluxe made him “ashamed to be a Montanan,” as well as gave a good reason not to have a tax incentive for filmmakers in Montana. Those are quite bold statements which do not at all recommend the movie to viewers.
However, in my humble opinion, even growing up with family raising cattle, and therefore feeling quite sensitive to the concept of cattle theft, and the uncomfortable verbiage about Native Americans, regardless of the reason, the film is quirky and worth a watch, and absolutely a prize in itself to watch Jimmy Buffett (billed in the cast as Himself) and band members, one of whom is actually the films writer Thomas McGuane, as stand in on mandolin, performing in a bar scene, the rousing song Livingston Saturday Night, a song I look at that dives into the quirky and special town that Livingston Montana is.
“People are movin’ so quickly, Humor’s in need of repair, Same occupations and same obligations, They’ve really got nothing to share, Like driving around with no spare…”
Park County Montana, with Livingston claiming the title of county seat and largest town in the county, gets its name from its close proximity to Yellowstone National Park, which lies directly to the south. One of the park’s five entrances is through Park County, known as the North Entrance, on state highway 89, which passes through Roosevelt Arch to enter Yellowstone near Gardiner. Park County was called home by Montana’s indigenous tribes, including the Crow (Apsáalooke, sometimes spelled Absaroka), Sioux (Lakota) and Blackfoot (Niitsitapi) tribes before settlers arrived from the east. Although trappers and frontiersmen moved through the area prior, its most famous expeditions are the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1805-06 and Jim Bridger overwintering near Emigrant in 1844-45. Later the county was filled with people hot on the trail of the gold rush, and eventually taken over by cattle ranchers, which of course ties strongly to the plot of Rancho Deluxe.
As to the development of the song, Wonder Why You Ever Go Home, it’s a tale almost as quirky as the plot of Rancho Deluxe.
As to the song, Wonder Why You Ever Go Home, with only “you” later changed from “we”, the lyrics on the one verse of the Rancho Deluxe version remain similar to the 1977 version.
I can’t say for certain when or why, but at some point, after writing the beginnings of the song for Rancho Deluxe, Jimmy reworked the lyrics, changed the title and added more verses, and planned on placing the song on his 1976 album Havana Daydreamin’.
Jimmy actually recorded it for that album, but it was cut from the final release, along with three other songs. Those being Train To Dixieland, the intriguingly named Please Take Your Drunken 15 Year Old Girlfriend Home and a slightly different version of Kick It In Second Wind, than the one that actually made the final album. This version of Wonder Why We Ever Go Home has a few lyric changes, as well as the order change of several of the verses, from the final version that finally made “the cut” a year later.
I am not certain why the song didn’t make the final cut for Havana Daydreamin’, but it’s apparent that Jimmy must have felt deeply connected to the song and wasn’t ready to give up on it.
Third time is the charm, or so it seems, because a lovely, slightly reordered version was rerecorded in late 1976 and placed on 1977’s Changes In Latitudes Changes In Attitudes, the first of Jimmy’s Norbert Putnam produced albums.
Changes is probably most well-known for Margaritaville, which undoubtedly shifted Jimmy’s career, and ties him forever to beaches, beach bums, and salty lime and tequila cocktails. It also includes my personal favorite song Changes In Latitudes Changes In Attitudes, which never fails to brighten my day.
But if you look at the core of Jimmy’s album “Changes”, you will find gentle, heartfelt, and deeply introspective songs such as Biloxi, written by Jesse Winchester, and In The Shelter and Wonder Why We Ever Go Home, written by Jimmy.
The 1977 version of Wonder Why We Ever Go Home is slightly slower, perhaps more poignant and is perfectly combined with the soulful harmonica work of Greg “Fingers” Taylor.
“River gets deeper not shallow, The further you move down the stream, Wonderin’ if I can keep her, As I race to keep up with my dreams, How they shine and glitter and gleam…”
When looking over the slightly different lyrics of each version, I personally love that the 1977 version opens and closes with the same verse, as if serving as wistful bookends to the slightly mournful and reflective song. A song that feels a little out of sorts, a little mellow, a little sad and a lot contemplative.
Between the release and success of Margaritaville in 1977, this was the year that also found Jimmy opening for and touring with The Eagles. These two things probably changed the trajectory of JB’s career. Certainly, these things opened him up to a bigger audience and therefore a larger fan base, but also gave him a lot of knowledge about how a bigger tour would work. The seeds of Jimmy’s career and empire sprouted in 1977, leading to the mega empire that Jimmy eventually built through hard work and savvy.
But those same seeds also nurtured the gentle and introspective storytelling that contemplates life at its most basic level, which we see time and time again in Jimmy’s music, across all the years he gifted us music.
For those who doubt what an introspective and deeply emotional songwriter that Jimmy was, this is one of those songs that could challenge those beliefs. Wonder Why We Ever Go Home deals with ideas and deeply personal questions about how life goes on, touching on our seemingly mindless modern existence, far more impersonal now than in the seventies when Jimmy penned it, which highlights the timeless quality of this beautiful song. And sometimes makes me wonder if Jimmy caught a ride once or twice on a cosmetic time machine.
I think it is a beautiful song and has always struck an emotional chord within me. As I get a little older, it connects to me a little more, and I think that is a sure sign of a beautiful song. It might not be one of Jimmy’s more well-known songs, but if it’s not on your radar, it should be.
“Years grow shorter, not longer, The more you’ve been on your own, Feelin’s for movin’ grow stronger, So you wonder why you ever go home, Wonder why you ever go home… You wonder why you ever go home…”
Please enjoy Wonder Why We Ever Go Home, from 1977’s Changes In Latitudes Changes In Attitudes. I am also going to include the link to the 1976 version that didn’t make the cut for Havana Daydreamin’, and the 1975 version from Rancho Deluxe that started it all.
Please enjoy one version of your choice, or better yet, all of the versions, to see the progression of a song in the capable hands of a gifted songwriter.
Stacy
Please enjoy Wonder Why We Ever Go Home. I have included song links below. Enjoy!
1977 Changes In Latitudes Changes In Attitudes studio version:
1976 Havana Daydreamin’ test version:
1975 Rancho Deluxe Version:
The first link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with. The others are from Zombastic Stylee and Barefootin, again, no personal affiliation.
Other links that might be of interest:
1975 Cattle Rustling Movie Filmed in Paradise Valley is a Classic (kmhk.com)
Livingston’s Star power (missoulian.com)
Rancho Deluxe movie review & film summary (1975) | Roger Ebert
** Edited to update links **
